It won’t be nearly as terrifying if you get drunk too.
Bilking of visitors is a tradition; many cities have special hotel taxes which are used to pay for things like sports venues and community projects. After all, why should the residents who will actually benefit from these have to pay for them when it’s so easy to slap a tax on things that the locals don’t use.
OK, maybe it’s because I study business, but most of you are basically whining pitiously about pretty ordinary business. But I’m going to assume that nobody told you about how to do business with these people, because in my experience most people aren’t told. but it’s important, because car rental is a very flexible business and they compete heavily - and because getting initial rentals from people is often important in keeping their business. It’s a lot like buying houses or cars - they’ll negotiate because it’s important.
First off, the fees you’re charged mostly have nothing to do with the things they claim. A few might. That doesn’t mean they’re not valid or the people are being dishonest. They want to charge a “competitive price” with other rental agencies, since the business is about half price-oriented and half service-oriented. Every one of them will have these, and it will come pretty close to doubling the listed price.
Second, you can negotiate with the rental agency. You don’t want to talk to whomever you just happen to see. Get a manager. Now, if that one person is the only one there, they probably have authority to negotiate a bit (this is common at night in airports, where it’s safe to leave somebody and they need to be open). Talk to them, and get a list of all their fees. If you don’t like it, negotiate a bit. Call ahead, even, and set things up. If you know it’s coming, you’re armed to negotiate over it. Plus, if they then try to tack on something, you camn pull out your estimated bill and fire right back.
Back in the 80’s…the race for the governor of Montana produced a candidate who ran on a platform of…
…getting out of staters to provide most of the revenue for the state.
Seriously. That was his much-trumpeted goal…for non-residents of the state to pay more than 50% of the state revenue.
He won the election.
The next few years were somewhat funny as he kept trying to get things through and finding out they were illegal/violated constitution/struck down by state supreme court.
He tried to get out-of-staters to pay sales tax (Montana had no sales tax). He tried to charge fees at the border for out of state vehicles (and surrounding states were ready to retaliate if he did). He did succeed in raising hunting and fishing out-of-state licenses to stratospheric levels…
…and pretty much doubled hotel and rental car costs.
He tried so many things I can’t remember the vast majority of them. The only ones that seemed to stick were hotel/rental car/hunting fishing licenses and such. What confused me was the even if he would have been able to implement all he wanted…how would that raise so much revenue in * Montana *?
I moved out of the area so am not sure if he won re-election.
Alright, I’ll try to explain this to you. I am the Controller of a Budget Rental Car franchise.
Daily Frequent Flier Fee. - Paperwork must be done in order for you to receive your frequent flier miles. The fee is to reimburse the company for handling that on your behalf. Consequently, if you don’t want your frequent flier miles, you don’t pay the fee.
Customer Facility Charge. - As it sounds, it’s a pass through charge to cover maintenance on the facilities. Believe me, it doesn’t cover the total expenditures. As a franchise, Corporate dictates everything down to the size and color of the damned toilet paper.
Concession Recovery Fee. - This is the amount paid to the airport for the ability to operate on their property. In our area, the airport gets 11.1%. If you are a local customer and can produce say a drivers license with a local address, you are not charged this fee.
Florida Surcharge. - already answered by someone else upthread.
Tire/Battery Fee. - Consider this depreciation. During your rental you used approximately 6 cents of the life of the tires and battery. Sounds like you got off pretty cheap.
License Recoup Fee. - This is the recovery of the property taxes due upon the purcchase of the vehicle.
Thee items are not included in the daily rental fee because they are all treated and reported differently. For example, when reporting the airport concessions, only the rental revenue is considered.
By the way, the amount of profit generated by actually renting cars is very small. After all the taxes and other fees are paid, it is almost breakeven. The profit is recognized in car sales.
Hope this is helpful.
The advertised price is different than the actual price, and this is frustrating. How hard is that to understand? And, yes, the Quik-Lube places should be pitted, too.
They really call you The Controller?
There you go! The daily fee just doubled. NO - Tripled, becuase everybody in the car is going to need the beer.
Yep. The Controller is the title assigned to the head of the accounting department.
If the fee has nothing to do with the things they claimed, then how can it be anything other than invalid or dishonest?
The statement made is erroneous. The fees charged are exactly for the things they claim to be for. We have to account for every penny charged to the customer and paid to whomever the fee was collected for.
I chose not to respond to the original comments because I didn’t want to get into a pissing match with someone who is “studying business”. But, since I am here I will now say that pretty much everything stated is incorrect.
I think the issue here is that these fees and surcharges add significantly to the actual price, but are not disclosed up front.
Quiet, pond scum!
No no, he’s LOWER than pond scum, remember?
He’s a she. and thank you. Pond scum is actually nice considering some of the things I’m usually called. But that is when I (heaven forbid) charge a customer for a ticket they received while in one of our vehicles.
Must have thick skin to work in this industry!
Good idea. I may just take you up on that, RNATB! Thanks!
Looks up RNATB’s post history in various threads involving alcohol
:eek:
Actually, I’m a tired drunk. No fun at all.
If you need a car in Phoenix, try renting from a neighborhood location instead of the airport. You’ll save on some of those fees. See if your hotel offers an airport shuttle. If it does, use your hotel address to search for car rental locations nearby. You might get lucky and find one only a mile or two away, and the hotel will often be willing to take you with their shuttle, or if it’s Enterprise, they’ll pick you up 
In my experience they do. You just have to pay attention.
OK, I was exaggerating. To be more accurate: “They break out some things so they don’t have to raise their advertised rates, and they hope that if they add 20 very definite charges, customers will not complain as much as if they added them all up into one big fee.” I’d say that is is dihonest, except that it’s so common in the industry that you should just expect it as the normal course of business.
As luck would have it, I just happen to have my car rental receipt in front of me from a business trip it took to Philadelphia two weeks ago.
Let’s see:
Vehicle - $46.00
Pass Car Rental Tax - 2.00%
PA Sales Tax - 6.00%
Stadium Tax - 2.00%
Phila Sales Tax - 2.00%
A/P Access Fee - 11.11%
Transport Assist Tax - $2.00/day
Over 23% in taxes! But at least I can tell from the invoice what they are for.
If by exaggerating you mean bullshitting than I believe you.
The fees that are “broken out” are handled that way, because it is required. We are required by the airport, the taxing authorities, and countless other agencies to account for all items separately. We don’t “hope” that our customers will not complain if they are handled this way. You should probably quit while you’re ahead. You obviously know dick about the rental car industry.